PAZ: Variation and Creation: The Story of PAZ

PAZ was a London-based British fusion collective formed in 1972 by vibraphonist Dick Crouch. Their sound was heavily influenced by Latin music, though not entirely. Crouch worked as a producer for the BBC Transcription Department in West London. He formed the group out of a growing dissatisfaction with the local jazz of the time, and a committed belief that melody should be put back into the repertoire. They were long lived on the club circuit in London and the south-east of England attracting a mostly rock audience rather than a jazz one. They never achieved popularity like some of their British contemporaries: Morrisey-Mullen, Brian Augar's Oblivion Express, early Incognito.

Over the years PAZ's alumni boasted top class British and overseas musicians: saxophonists Lol Coxhill, Brian Smith and Ray Warleigh, the group's mainstay, and keyboardist Geoff Castle, guitarists Phil Lee, Ed Speight and Jim Mullen, Ronnie Scott's long time bassist Ron Matthewson, to name just a few of over thirty that passed through the ranks. It was a part-time band, and inevitably the line-up changed depending on the availability of the players. Deps would come in or become semi-permanent fixtures.

Record producer Tony Williams' Spotlite Records was initially responsible for raising the group's profile in 1978 releasing a BBC Transcription Services record as part of their debut album Kandeen Love Song followed by PAZ Are Back in 1982. Albums that are somewhat out of place on a label renowned for the Charlie Parker Dial recordings and American jazz broadcasts with rare studio/live recordings by leading American jazz musicians.

Jazz Room Records, and former Paladin Records co-owner, Paul Murphy, who licensed and released their third album Look Inside in 1983 recalls the group as "Hard to sell, a very small audience in those days. Plus, the ancient jazzers tended to look down on that kind of thing."

This may, in part, explain the mystery of PAZ, "The Greatest British Jazz Fusion Group That You've Never Heard Of."

This 3CD box set is released by the non-profit organization Jazz In Britain whose aim is to preserve and promote the legacy of British jazz and British jazz musicians. It contains recordings compiled from the group members and their relatives' archives, many of which have passed. Thirty-five hours of PAZ music lifted from dusty old reel tapes and cassettes reduced to four hours along with an acetate of the group's first recording "L' Harmonique" from 1972 released as The Dick Crouch Band featuring Lol Coxhill. Certain 'classic' PAZ tunes are included that had been on albums, they are alternative, some extended, versions and different from their original album versions.

The set offers plenty of the group's trademark jazz dance-friendly Latin funk fusion including "Moonchild," "Yours Is the Light," "Laying Eggs," "The Buddha," their 'tour de force' "AC/DC."

Also included is a 1981 spiritual/free jazz session with guitarist Alan Holdsworth previously released on Jazz In Britain in 2020 as Live in London '81: The Ron Mathewson Tapes Vol. 2 with the Singing Bowls of Tibet.

Vocal Brazil-esque tracks (vocals only being introduced in the latter half of the group's history) "Tem Dó de Mim" and "Ever in Love" feature a further side to the band's repertoire. Also included are eight previously never-before-heard PAZ recordings. Thirty-six tracks in all. The clean-up job is nothing short of a technical marvel.

The producers decided to avoid PAZ recordings that had been previously released and concentrate on unreleased tunes or recordings that had only been featured on BBC Transcription Services and broadcast sessions. Only scant details of the sessions were found regarding the wheres and whens, so that information remains uncertain. The musician credits are a guessing game as to who played on what. What is known for certain is the PAZ charts were written by either Crouch, Castle or collectively.

The release is somewhat mistitled as The Story of PAZ. It is also not the best of PAZ compilation. What it is, is a collection of newly discovered recordings that PAZ followers and those interested in the history of British jazz fusion should welcome.

Crouch said in an interview in 1978: "PAZ means peace in Spanish and there are jazz connotations as well. Some people think it means progressive jazz, but I don't like jazz anyway." The interviewer responded with: "You don't LIKE jazz?" Crouch replied: "I don't like the kind of jazz one hears in London pubs at all. I don't want to be associated with it. I find it very boring. Obviously, I'd go to Ronnie's and hear Dexter Gordon till the cows come home. But I find British jazz utterly boring- -even when it's all happening, which is rare."

For a best of PAZ collection search out the 1997 compilation The Best of PAZ (Spotlight Jazz) together with the vinyl-only 1983 LP Look Inside (Paladin Records). Together with Variations and Creation: The Story of PAZ (Jazz In Britain, 2025) you will have all the PAZ you will ever need.

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